Announcing BlueBar Beacon

We are extremely proud to announce BlueBar Beacon – a standalone Bluetooth LE beacon device powered by a single coin-cell battery.

Development of the BlueBar Beacon took us a few months and several design iterations. Our goal was to quickly bring a device to market and still not compromise on power efficiency, certification availability and security.

Guided by those principles we developed our design around BlueGiga’s BLE113 Bluetooth Smart module – a fully integrated solution with CE, FCC, IC, Japan, and South Korea certifications. Its low power profile allows our device to run continuously on a single coin-cell battery for up to two years. The module supports adjustment of its transmit power in 16 steps and exposes several hardware interfaces. This let us concentrate our efforts on building a Bluetooth LE beacon firmware with all features necessary to develop applications that use the technology.

Key features of the BlueBar Beacon are as follows:
– Fully iBeacon technology compatible – tested and works with the iPhone (4S and later) as well as the iPad;
– Works with Android 4.3+ devices, that support Bluetooth Low Energy – using a 3rd party library;
– Denial of service and tamper proof firmware – uses an encrypted connection to setup and control the device;
– Allows all iBeacon parameters to be set and updated – UUID, Major and Minor;
– Allows signal power and advertisement frequency to be adjusted;
– Runs on a single CR2450 3V Lithium battery for up to two years;
– It is CE, FCC, IC, Japan, and South Korea certified;
– Fully RoHS compliant;

The BlueBar Beacon is currently available to order in two variations – as an integration kit and as an end-user device. The integration kits are starting to ship in January 2014, and the end-user variation is expected to ship in March 2014.